Tag: lips

Body language of a smile: It doesn’t matter where you go in the world there are a few things that are universal:

·Coca Cola

·Traffic

·Smiles

Now when it comes to other people you may not have the ability to speak their language but the universal sign and signal of approval is the smile. You know that whatever language you speak the smile is the gateway into others.

Body language of real smiles:

To learn about real smiles and how to understand them we will have to take a short trip to France. Its ok it will just take the time of this paragraph. You can thank a Dr. for Neurology as we know it today and that would be Guillaume-Benjamin-Amand Duchenne (1806 – 1875).

Dr. Duchenne is the father of neurology as we know it. When you see a real or genuine smile you can have some inside knowledge and know that the Duchenne smile was named after him.

There are a few traits when understanding the nonverbal communication of a smile and also to know if it is a real smile that you are reading:

·The corners of the lips will pull back

·The eyes will create crows feet wrinkles

When you read or interpret a real smile you will see the corners of the lips pull back towards the ears. When a man or women gives a genuine smile you will see crow’s feet or wrinkles at the corners of the eye. As age sets in on both men and women these crow’s feet become more pronounced.

Body language of a fake smile:

When you are reading into the nonverbal signs of a smile you will want to look at the corners of the lips and or the cheeks. The cheeks may raise in the case of a fake smile depending on the man or the woman .

In some instances a fake or generated smile may look more like surprise than a smile.

Most people cannot successfully fake a “genuine” smile and that is great news for you because you know when you interpret a genuine smile there is high probability it is real. One could guess it is a natural defense mechanism built over time to defend real emotions.

(video coming soon and goes here)

Body language and learning how to read it:

Reading the signs of a real smile is a great place to learn how to read body language. A great place to look into and increase your capabilities is to look at photos or videos of men, women and kids smiling in order to get your baseline of this nonverbal communication skill. You can go places where people would have real smiles and get a feel for what they look like and you could also just observe people at dinner where on a weekend night you can see just about every human emotion and or micro expression possible.

It is important for you to know what your body language is doing so why not video tape yourself so you can see for yourself what you are doing when you communicate with others. See if you can give a real or Duchenne smile when you don’t want to and then you can also see what it looks like when you fake this experience.

Body language of fear: When it comes to reading body language or nonverbal communication of the “tells” or “leaks” that people have and can’t really control are micro expressions.

While reading the micro expressions of fear there are a few items to look at while reading facial expressions:

·The eyebrows

·The eyes and eye lids

·The mouth

Micro expressions of fear and the eyebrows

The eyebrows with the micro expression of fear with start with the eyebrows. They eyebrows will move upwards but also smash towards the center of the nose as one single movement. In most instances the eyebrows will move up as high as possible.

Micro expressions of fear and the eyes

With the emotion of fear the micro expressions for this non verbal action will have two things that happen.

1.The top of the eyelids will move up high

2.The bottom eyelid will flatten out

For all micro expression this is the only one that has these two actions when it comes to the eyes.

Micro expressions of fear and the mouth

When the emotion of fear is expressed the facial feature of the mouth will cause the corners of the lips to pull back towards the ears. This facial feature will almost make the lips flat.

Body language of fear

When a man or a woman shows the nonverbal emotion of fear the hands may raise in front of their face or trunk to protect the body. There are times where the hands and arms may get pulled to the body. Different people may have completely different reactions.

There are some times where reading the body or the nonverbal communication must be done instantly. In those cases it would be a good idea to have enough knowledge to act correctly.

Learn how to read micro expressions and body language

Learning how to process and read non verbal communication may be easier and more fun than you would think. The first place to learn is with friends or family that you know. Your greatest tool for learning how to read body language is a video camera or a mirror. Put yourself in a situation where you can make the required signs, signal or facial expression and either watch what you do in a mirror but the best bet is to record your own reaction so that you can slow down the video and watch in slow motion. With a video camera you have the ability to rewind and watch over again so it is one of the best options to learn how to read body language.

Body language of anger: When reading the nonverbal communication of men or women there are sometimes where the body language is 100% obvious. There are also times where you will have to read into the micro expressions of others the help you understand or interpret what is going on.

It is important to remember that most mirco expression only happen for a fraction of a second and some instances they can last longer. You may just get an ever so slight moment to catch on to what a man or woman is feeling or thinking.

While reading the micro expressions of anger you will want to look at the face of the man or woman and look for:

·The eyebrows

·The eyes

·The mouth

Body language of anger – The eyebrows

The micro expressions of men and women will be the same when it comes to anger. You will start by looking at their eyebrows. When angry the eyebrows will tilt in towards the center of the face or both will be flat and lower. There will be times where the nonverbal communication of anger will be felt from others just from looking at the eyebrows.

Body language of anger – The eyes

When reading the body language of anger the eyes will have a glare to them. In some instances the man or the woman will squint their eyes and in some instances even with the eyebrows down or flat the eyes will be wide open.

Body language of anger – The mouth

The body language of anger in a man or woman will also show through with their mouth. When the micro expressions of anger is shown at the mouth it will be done so through the narrowing of the lips. It may seem as if the man or the woman is biting their lips or holding them so tight they can’t let a word out of their mouth.

Body language of anger – other nonverbal cues from the body

When people are angry their body language or actions will be more animated. The man or the woman may shake their finger at another person and at times their hands will be as far away from the body as possible. You may see the person stomp, waive their arms, punch at non animated objects or people or they may just ball up wherever they are. When a man or woman is angry it is best to leave them alone and stay away from them as your actions may provoke them even further.

How to improve your micro expression skills

In order to experience the body language of anger one of the best things to do is look in the mirror and pretend that you are angry. You will want to look at your eyebrows, your nose and your mouth so that you can see exactly what your own micro expressions are and what your nonverbal communication shows others when you have a feeling or an emotion that can be read off of your face. This goes for any of the other micro expressions also.

Reading body language: Flirting is one of the most misunderstood concepts when it comes to others reading the body language of men or women, in the last article on reading body language the head was used to describe some of the ways that a man could be flirted with along with a woman.

Understanding what communication is being presented in front of you may help you to determine if someone is interested in you for more than just a friendship. Reading the body language of flirting will go into other items besides the actions of a man or woman’s head tilts, there is the art of reading facial expressions.

Reading body language of women flirting

The facial features of flirting can include using

·Eyebrows

·Eyes

·The mouth

Using eyebrows to flirt

There are very specific things that people will do to flirt with a man or a woman and there can just be one thing used in their body language that can be read into. When a person is using their nonverbal communication and eyebrows they may arch them quickly once or twice to see if the other person is receptive to the advance. In some instances the flirter will make sure that their message is seen and will arch their eyebrows a few times. If done too many times towards a target that is being flirted at the flirter may be seen as being desperate or even that there may be a lack of social value.

Part of the fun for some of the people who flirt with others is the thrill of the chase. Once this flirter reaches and gains the attention of their target they may just give up and move onto the next person hat they wish to target. So as a side note there are people out there who just are flirting to get a quick fix of attention.

Once someone has possibly used their head or eyebrows they may use their eye or eyes to gain attention they may even use their eyes to grab your attention. When people use this nonverball communication there may be a few things that can be done:

1. Flirting action of Winking – This wink can just be from a quick action or they even wink once slower than what you would think. The downside is that you may think that someone was flirting and they may just have something in their eye.

2. The flirting action of batting the eyes – Sometimes women while flirting will bat their eyes or flutter them at a person that they may interested in. This is not as common as a wink at a person to flirt with them.

3. The flirting action of the stare – Sometimes to get the attention one may stare to at a person to flirt with them or use this action for a while until the other person looks and then the eyebrows can be arched or a wink can be used.

4. How to flirt with your mouth. Sometimes while flirting will blow a kiss and even sometimes as a overt action some will lick their lips. It is good to know that sometimes people may unconsciously lick their lips when they are attracted to you. Sometimes even a smile can be considered a form of flirting but it will really depend upon the situation. As a side note if you stare at someone lips while they are talking to you and this is not a situation where flirting is involved it can be looked at like a sexual advance.

Reading body language can include flirting amd smiling

While being flirted with the nonverbal communication from the other person may be overt in nature or almost covert depending upon the situation. Knowing what each action being used with these body language techniques can help you land a new friend or even just to learn to have more fun.

As with reading the body language of other people there are times where you can be right with your interpretation of the actions or you could be wrong.

Body language exercise

One of the things that can be done to practice flirting is just to arch your eyebrows once with a person whether you are interested in them or not. The nonverbal communication exercise can be done just about anywhere but if you are married or have a significant other this action may not be the best idea for you.

As always I would like to thank you in advance for your comments and or questions about reading or interpreting body language.

Now go implement!

Scott Sylvan Bell

Photo credits: Young Woman by David Castillo Dominici, Beautiful Asian Woman by nuchylee